


Shine

by waywardmelody



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 15, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Established Relationship, Happy Birthday Ignis, M/M, Presents, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 17:59:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9618845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waywardmelody/pseuds/waywardmelody
Summary: Above them, the stars shone. But Ignis had ceased paying attention.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [j_marquis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_marquis/gifts).



> Comments and kudos fuel my Gladnis soul. Follow me on tumblr @ ofthekingsglaive , if you've a mind.

The road is longer than the one they initially anticipated.  It was to have been a simple jaunt, a final ride towards Noctis’ eternal, marital bliss and an accompanying peace that would last for centuries. What they got instead was very different. It became a chore to keep track of their movements, let alone their days. Each one blended into the next. Most encounters blurred into the next as well, the endless monotony of facing the same sorts of enemies in new places driving all four companions into a complacency in which every day seemed much like the day that came before.

Even the ever engaged mind of an advisor compartmentalized when necessary, and between trying to find the necessary parts to keep the Regalia in working order, keeping the group fed and in enough coin to keep renting chocobos to Prompto’s unending joy, he almost had forgotten his own birthday. He only remembered when he caught the date upon a receipt at a fill up station north of Leide. They had a job to do, and birthdays did not matter much. They were simply a fixed point upon a calendar and a reminder of one’s own mortality, he reasoned.

Still, in the soft hours of the night, right as the evening changed from the 6th day to the 7th, he excused himself to the edges of camp and looked above. In Lucis, the wall obscured the stars. As a very young man, before he’d come to the Crown City, he remembered being fascinated with them. It was a fascination renewed when he found that though camping lacked access to a hot bath, it gave him access to something else precious. The tactician used the pointer stars as reference to arrive at the shape of the Draconian’s Sword. It was a wavy line upside-down from the northern perspective, combining the star belt with representations of other Gods. It gave him a sense of peace to think that the Gods were there, shining distantly, ever vigilant.

“You wishing on stars now?”

Gladiolus stood, arms akimbo, as if readying for a fight. As his posture relaxed and he moved forward, Ignis turned his face back to the heavens and smiled.

“Why would I do that? Children wish on stars, Gladio. Not grown men.”

Gladio sat close, their hips touching, fingers linking to lie across Ignis’ lap. It was so easy to be with him, like this, when nothing was waiting for the attention of either of them. He loved the feeling of Gladio’s hands on him, even when it was something as chaste as pressing their palms to one another.

“I don’t know, “Gladio said. “Some people blow out candles on their birthdays, Iggy. Don’t see why you couldn’t buck tradition.”

Ignis scooted closer still, allowing the fond surprise at having his birthday remembered make him pliable and soft, a momentary lapse in stoicism letting him to lean against his lover’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t be surprised you remembered,” he admitted. “And yet, I am.”

“Yeah, well. You forget you’re important to people.” Gladio hummed against his ear, and though Ignis’ eyes were still trained at the sky, he felt a lightness settle in his chest, a happiness amidst the heaviness of all they had been up against since leaving Lucis. He could have fallen asleep right there, letting the contentedness settle over him like a warm blanket.

“Noct bought a cake,” Gladio continued. “Had Takka make it special. It’s why we passed by Hammerhead for no good reason.”

Ignis stilled against him, the lightness within threatening to overwhelm. He tightened his grip on Gladio’s hand, but Glaido continued speaking in that lazy, undeterred way of his.

“And Prompto…took a shit ton of pictures of you and him. Of you and Noct. Of you…and me. He put em’ all together in a book.”

Ignis stared hard at the sky, but the lights were no longer focused pinpricks, bright and clear. He couldn’t see the patterns. The lights were instead unfocused, blurred. Something was in his eyes. It was too much, but it was not enough, when thinking of what might come next.

“I didn’t want you to be surprised. I know you don’t like it,” Gladio explained. “But you’ll have to pretend I didn’t. I don’t want his highness to sulk.”

Gladio released his hand to busy callused fingers at the back of his neck. He drew them together, Gladio’s chapped lips pressed against his, the soft insistence of a tongue licking into the seam of his mouth. He heard himself keen as arms opened to him with a lenience that still felt undeserved, even after months of belonging to each other.

“Mums the word then.”

Above them, the stars shone. But Ignis had ceased paying attention.


End file.
